Book 4: Hymn 6: A charm to make a poisoned arrow harmless

HYMN VI

A charm to make a poisoned arrow harmless

1The Brāhman first was brought to life ten-headed and with faces
ten.
First drinker of the Soma, he made poison ineffectual.
2Far as the heavens and earth are spread in compass, far as the
Seven Rivers are extended,
So far my spell, the antidote of poison, have I spoken hence,
3The strong-winged Bird Garutmān first of all, O Poison fed on
thee:
Thou didst not gripe or make him drunk: aye, thou becamest
food for him.
4Whoever with five fingers hath discharged thee from the crooked
bow,
I from the shaft have charmed away the poison of the fastening
band.
5The poison have I charmed away from shaft, cement, and feather-
ed end;
Yea, from the barb, the neck, the horn, the poison have I charmed
away.
6Feeble, O Arrow, is thy shaft, thy poison, too, hath lost its
strength.
Made of a worthless tree, thy bow, O feeble one, is impotent.
7The men who brayed it, smeared it on, they who discharged it,
sent it forth,
All these are made emasculate, emasculate the poison-hill.
8Thy diggers are emasculate, emasculate, O, Plant art thou.
The rugged mountain that produced this poison is emasculate.